More than 100 institutions will use the portal, and the first 20 courses are set to start in January. The "effort is part of a larger national educational initiative funded by the Ministry called France Université Numerique (France Digital University), which will be open to all French universities and will provide France with a state-of-the art site and technology platform," according to an edX news release.

"This marks the first time a national education ministry has embraced online learning," said edX President Anant Agarwal, in a prepared statement. "France's adoption of the edX platform is a testament to the power of online education and the potential of edX's open source platform."

Though the ministry will use the edX platform, "France's new MOOC portal will be independent, separate, and distinct from edX.org," according to information released by the MOOC provider.

This year the edX platform has also been adopted by the International Monetary Fund to deliver a pair of courses that will be offered to government representatives and opened to the public in 2014 and by Aspiring Minds, an Indian company that helps individuals improve their skills for greater employability.